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Glendale mayor seeks alternative solution to coyote problem

Glendale Mayor Laura Friedman is calling on city officials to use the techniques of animal welfare groups when dealing with coyotes in the future rather than turning too hastily to traps.

During a City Council meeting Tuesday, Friedman said several animal welfare organizations contacted the city after a media flap broke out earlier this week as Los Angeles County officials prepared to catch a pack of coyotes that was roaming a North Glendale neighborhood and using a fire-gutted house as their base, the Glendale News-Press reported.

The coyotes were to have been euthanized.

Some of the organizations offered to come to Glendale and help residents, Friedman said.

And while she's willing to consider assistance from animal welfare groups in the future, Friedman said she wanted city officials to vet them first.

Traps were set earlier this summer on a resident's private property in the Brockmont Drive neighborhood after he requested them, officials said, but no coyotes were caught.

Ken Pellman, a spokesman for the office of the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures, said in an email that officials had first advised the resident how to make his property less attractive to coyotes, including clearing brush and securing trash.

But complaints continued, so county officials returned to the neighborhood last week to assess where traps might be most effective, said Michael Pearson, also with the office of the agricultural commissioner.

In reponse to public outcry, county officials decided not to use traps, citing the fact that the animals were not aggressive and the fire-damaged house, which was gutted last fall, is slated to be demolished within a week.

Friedman said she understood that lethal measures should be used if coyotes are aggressive, but when they're not, she prefers options from animal welfare groups, such as encouraging packs to move on.

"I hope that as we get those complaints, we try some of those solutions as kind of our first line of defense," she said.